A user guide to international trade statistics and trade asymmetries

Introduction

International trade shows the extent of import and export activity and is a main contributor to the measurement of overall economic growth of the UK. International trade statistics provide an estimate of the UK’s trade with its partner countries and the rest of the world. They present a picture of total imports and exports by both trade in goods and trade in services. Trade in goods and trade in services each have their own data sources, classifications and breakdowns.

In the UK, estimates of international trade in goods are produced by:

• Office for National Statistics (ONS), which measures trade in goods on an economic ownership basis, in line with the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments manual (BPM6)
• HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC), which measures on a physical movement basis, in line with the International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) framework

Estimates of international trade in services are produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), in line with the Manual on Statistics Of International Trade In Services (MSITS).

Estimates are consistent with the Annual National Accounts (The Blue Book) and the UK Balance of Payments (The Pink Book). The ONS trade statistics are compiled in line with international frameworks (the relevant framework is currently BPM6). New standards (the seventh edition of the Balance of Payments manual and System of National Accounts 2025) will be implemented in coming years. A strategy for coordinated implementation of BPM7 (PDF, 252 KB) published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggests implementation between 2029 and 2031.

Major providers of partner international trade statistics include:

• Statistical Office of the European Union, EUROSTAT
• World Trade Organization (WTO)
• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
• United Nations (UN COMTRADE)

Users need timely data to help make decisions and develop policy. Members of the public are also interested in the UK’s trade position and want to understand who UK trading partners are.

To help users interpret and understand the statistics and how they can be used, this user guide outlines the different ways that UK trade statistics are collected and measured, including an outline of their strengths and limitations. It also outlines how some partner trade statistics are measured and how differences in measurement may lead to differences in reported estimates of trade by the UK and partner countries. These differences are referred to as trade asymmetries. Also included in this user guide is an outline of:

• the main international trade data sources
• the differences in the concepts being measured
• the potential uses for each data source
• how these differences may lead to trade asymmetries

UK trade data

UK trade in goods

Goods, as defined by the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Balance of  Payments and International Investment Position Manual, BPM6, are “physically produced items over which ownership rights can be established”. Economic ownership of these items can be passed between institutional units via transactions. Goods can be used to satisfy the needs or wants of households or the community, or to produce other goods or services whose production can be separated from their subsequent sale or resale.

The UK trade in goods data published by ONS are principally sourced from HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) overseas trade in goods statistics (OTS). The data provided by HMRC are on an International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) basis, which reflect goods that are traded on a physical movement basis. These data are then adjusted from a physical movement of goods basis to a Balance of Payments basis, which conforms to the IMF definition that measures transactions only when economic change of ownership has occurred. ONS does not count trade where goods move across land borders but remain under the same ownership. However, ONS does attempt to measure scenarios in which goods change economic ownership but do not cross land borders A recent publication on measuring globalisation analyses these principles in relation to ONS’ efforts to capture changes in economic ownership in the context of measuring globalisation.

Additional data sources are used to make adjustments to HMRC data, to conform to the Balance of Payments definition. International Trade in Services (ITIS) survey data are used to adjust for merchanting and goods sent abroad for processing. Merchanting is defined in Chapter 10 of the BPM6 as the purchase of goods by a resident (of the compiling economy) from a non-resident, followed by the resale of the same goods to another non-resident, without the goods entering the resident’s economy. Other data sources used include Household Final Consumption Expenditure (HHFCE) to adjust for smuggled alcohol, drugs and tobacco, estimates calculated by ONS are used to adjust for globalisation, and a commercial data source, VesselsValue Ltd, for the provision of UK shipping data. Data on non-monetary gold and other precious metals are obtained from the Bank of England (BoE). Goods estimates can be adjusted or balanced when faced with other data on the UK domestic economy during processing through the Supply Use framework. However, this can only be done when no other component can sensibly accommodate the needed adjustment.

UK trade in goods statistics are published monthly, approximately six weeks after the end of the reference month, and are provided at seasonally adjusted current prices and chained volume measures. Headline trade statistics exclude precious metals due to their volatility. Precious metals include non-monetary gold, silver bullion, platinum bullion, and palladium bullion. More detail can be found in the ONS explanation of non-monetary gold in national accounts article.

Monthly trade in goods data are broken down to country and commodity level. Goods commodity data are primarily published according to the Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) and split into the following 10 categories:

• food and live animals
• beverages and tobacco
• crude materials
• fuels
• animal and vegetable oils and fats
• chemicals
• material manufactures
• machinery and transport equipment
• miscellaneous manufactures
• unspecified goods

Trade in goods statistics are also published quarterly according to the Classification of Product by Activity (CPA) (PDF, 3.6 MB) in current prices and chained volume measures.

Strengths

The primary source for ONS trade in goods data is HMRC Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS) which is considered high quality in terms of timeliness, comprehensiveness, and coverage. These data capture all reported movement of goods across borders, as this is a legal requirement for tax purposes. HMRC have quality checks including automated corrections to resolve common types of error and checks on the trade data for value and quantity. For more information, please see overseas trade statistics: methodologies.

Trade in goods statistics produced by the ONS are highly comparable with those produced by other countries as international standards are used in the production of trade data. These include the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), the System of National Accounts (SNA2008), and the European System of Accounts (ESA2010).

Limitations

Every effort is made to ensure that the series are comparable over time. However, to account for the HMRC data collections changes post EU Exit, ONS have applied uplift adjustments to estimates of goods imports from the EU for 2021 and a downward adjustment to estimates of goods imports from the EU for the period January to June 2022. The full time series for goods imports from the EU and exports to the EU contains a discontinuity from January 2021 resulting from the move from Intrastat to customs declarations, which limits the ability of user to compare this data over time. The ONS articles about the impact of trade in goods data collection changes on UK trade statistics provide more detail.

ONS UK trade in goods statistics are produced on a country-of-dispatch basis, which records imports as coming from the country dispatching the shipments. Comparability is limited with some other sources that publish on a country-of-origin basis, such as the Department for Energy and Net Zero (DEZNZ) who publish on a country-of-origin basis in their energy trends publication.

More information about UK trade data, the quality characteristics of the data, and the methods used to create the data can be found in the UK trade quality and methods guide.

Users and usage

Trade in goods statistics feed into the current account within the Balance of Payments and into the expenditure approach of measuring Gross Domestic Product (GDP) within the national accounts.

ONS trade in goods statistics are widely used by the UK Government, policy makers, businesses and organisations involved in international trade, researchers, the media, and the public. The Department for Business and Trade (DBT) use ONS trade in goods statistics in their UK trade in numbers release and trade and investments factsheets.

The statistics are also used to answer press queries, parliamentary questions, and Freedom of Information (FOI) requests.

UK trade in services

Services, as defined by the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), are “the result of production activity that changes the conditions of the consuming units, or facilitates the exchange of products or financial assets”. Services are not generally separate items over which ownership rights can be established and cannot generally be separated from their production. However, in the Balance of Payments (BOP) goods and services accounts, there are exceptions such as computer software or intellectual property rights that can be traded separately from their production.

ONS trade in services data covers provision of services between UK residents and non-residents. ONS publishes monthly top-level estimates of trade in services that are forecast from quarterly estimates. These are published 6 weeks after the reference period and are revised in line with the National Accounts Revisions Policy. Quarterly estimates of trade in services are produced on a current prices (CP) and chained volume measures (CVM) basis 6 weeks following the reference period as part of first quarterly estimates of GDP. An additional breakdown of quarterly trade in services data by EU and non-EU and service account type (CP and CVM seasonally adjusted) is published 3 months following the end of the reference period as part of Quarterly National Accounts GDP. Further quarterly non-seasonally adjusted estimates of trade in services by partner country and service type are published around 4 months after the reference period. The annual UK trade in services by country and service type (published 9 to 10 months after the reference period) are consistent with the BOP Pink Book and Annual National Accounts (ANA) Blue Book. The primary data source for UK trade in services is the International Trade in Services (ITIS) survey. Data are collected by the ITIS survey quarterly and annually and comprise over 50% of the trade in services data. Some industries are excluded from the ITIS survey including travel, transport, and banking and other financial services. Data on these industries are compiled using the international passenger survey (IPS) and other administrative sources that include but are not limited to:

• Financial Intermediation Services Indirectly Measured (FISIM)
• Financial Services Survey (FSS)
• data from the Bank of England (BOE)
• government services data
• revenue and expense generated from military services from the Ministry of Defence (MOD)
• tuition fees and student numbers from the Higher Education Statistics Agency
• data from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) on flights
• data from airports on airport operators and airline revenues
• airlines fuel data from fuel companies
• international haulage and road freight statistics from the Department for Transport (DFT)
• energy prices, diesel prices and road fuel prices from the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ)
• shipping figures from the Chamber of Shipping (COS)

The data undergoes statistical disclosure control, and is broken down by partner country and service type using Extended Balance of Payments (EBOP) services classifications. These classifications are based on 12 main service categories:

• manufacturing services
• maintenance and repair services
• transport services
• travel services
• construction services
• insurance services
• financial services
• intellectual property services
• telecommunication, computer and information services
• other business services
• personal, cultural and recreational services
• government goods and services

Strengths

The main source of data is the ITIS survey, which is an accredited official statistic and has a high response rate between 60% and 70%. It has a sample size of approximately 2,200 businesses quarterly and 27,000 annually covering the small (10 to 49 employees), medium (50 to 249 employees) and large (250 or more employees) businesses.

Imputation is carried out to fill non-response in the ITIS survey. Ratio imputation is used where historical business data is present. Mean or median imputation is used where no historical business data is present. These methods along with survey methods are continually reviewed, refined and quality assured to ensure data are as robust as possible.

Trade in services data are derived in combination with other survey or administrative data to cover all service types.

ONS applies Statistical Disclosure Control Policy and maintains disclosure controls of input sources to safeguard information and reduce the risk of identifying individual businesses. This can lead to some data flows being suppressed. Attempts are made to find a balance between improving confidentiality protection and maintaining an acceptable level of quality in the published data.

Limitations

While ITIS has improved its method to sample microbusinesses with between 0 to 9 employees to enhance the coverage of the data, the scope for quality assurance of the data provided by these businesses is limited. This is due to a lack of previous periods of data to compare with. There is also the potential for sampling and non-sampling error that cannot be easily quantified. Due to these quality concerns, data relating to microbusinesses are not currently published as part of ONS trade estimates, and so the estimates do not accurately reflect this business population.

ONS uses forecasting methods to account for data gaps. Monthly trade in services data are forecast from previous quarterly data using timeseries and additional sources. As a consequence, the monthly trade in services estimates may not reflect the real time impacts of ongoing economic events.

Effort is made to ensure that the trade in services data is comparable over time. Where possible, changes to methodology are applied to the data back series to maintain comparability. However, the National Accounts Revisions Policy may mean that this is not always possible in the short term, or that a change is introduced over a shorter period to minimise the discontinuity. Due to recent revisions, consistent annual and quarterly timeseries for the trade in services data by partner country are available from 2016, limiting comparability with estimates preceding this date.

More quality information can be found in the International Trade in Services Quality and Methodology Information release and UK trade quality and methods guide.

Users and usage

Trade in services data is used by a variety of stakeholders that include:

• Department for Business and Trade (DBT)
• Bank of England (BoE)
• His Majesty’s Treasury (HMT)
• other government departments, policy makers, businesses and organisations, researchers, and media

Trade in services data is used to inform decisions on fiscal and monetary policy. Within ONS the data are also used feed into the current account within the Balance of Payments and into the expenditure approach of measuring GDP within the National Accounts. Trade in services data can undergo adjustments (also known as ‘balancing’) in context of other components used to measure the UK economy. In the annual GDP balancing process, ONS use the Supply and Use Tables (SUTs) framework as a basis for producing robust and high-quality annual estimates. Further information can be found within the National Accounts guide.

Trade asymmetries

When goods and services are traded (imported and exported) between countries, the transactions are reported twice: once by each country in the bilateral relationship. The exports (also known as credits) and imports (also known as debits) that each country records should be identical. For example, estimates of imports to France from the UK should in theory match UK estimates of exports to France. However, this is rarely the case and the difference between the two statistics is known as an “asymmetry”.

Asymmetries in trade statistics are a global phenomenon. They exist across international trade statistics and are of interest for reporting and partner countries. It is important to note that asymmetry is not an indication of the quality and accuracy of trade statistics of reporting and partner countries, rather the differences.

Asymmetries are therefore linked to level of coherence across countries’ statistical systems. The European Statistics System’s (ESS) Quality Assurance Framework defines ‘coherence’ as “the degree to which data that are derived from different sources or methods, but refer to the same topic, are similar”. Expanding on this definition the Government Statistical Service (GSS) outlines the responsibility of statistical agencies to explain how data sources relate to each other and how they can be combined or compared with other statistics to give a clearer picture. This user guide is part of ONS’ ambition to achieve this for trade statistics as defined in the coherence work programme for 2024 to 2025. Trade asymmetries result from a range of methodological sampling and collection, analytical and processing, and definitional and other practical differences between the statistical collection and compilation systems of different countries. While the international guidance for collecting trade statistics is available, countries that produce trade statistics will have their own statistical practices.

Trade in goods asymmetries

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) publishes UK international trade in goods asymmetries analysis with both EU and non-EU countries. Asymmetry measures include absolute asymmetry with accompanying datasets covering relative, non-absolute and percentage share of UK absolute asymmetry. The asymmetry is calculated at different levels of aggregation by combination of partner country flow, year, and harmonised system commodity nomenclature (HS2) chapter. The main data source is the United Nations International trade statistics (UN Comtrade data) provided on an International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) basis. While in the UK, non-EU trade in goods data is obtained from UK businesses’ customs declarations; from 2021 and 2022 customs declarations became the main data source for exports to and imports from the EU respectively. The Intrastat remains the main data source for Northern Ireland-EU trade data.

Guidance for use of trade in goods asymmetries is published by HMRC, while information on its methodology and trade partner data sources can be found in the asymmetries methodology notes.

The data is published in USD ($) values converted using an annual average exchange rate. It is a timeseries that covers the latest available three years of data.

Causes of trade in goods asymmetries

HMRC have produced a report focusing on some of the main issues related to asymmetries in international trade in goods data produced on an OTS basis that also affect comparability with UK trade data.

The main reasons why trade in goods asymmetries occur in HMRC trade in goods data can be classified into four groups.

Methodological differences

For example, movements of specific goods, differences in recording leased goods or repairs and data disclosure control.

Valuation differences

For example, national thresholds on measured trade, exchange rate variations and determining statistical value or trade in value added. Another example is where most countries apply the free on board (FOB) type valuation for exports while imports are reported on cost, insurance and freight (CIF) with FOB as supplementary information, contributing to asymmetrical valuation of exports and imports in bilateral trade.

Exporting partner country differences

For example, owing to:

• transit trade – where goods can be allocated to the wrong country while they are in transit through intermediary countries during supply
• triangular trade – whereby in a supply chain involving three parties or countries, the physical goods pass from one country to the last in the supply chain while the declared exporter is a separate country

Other differences

This includes the non-uniformity in systems of trade data compilation by countries. Some countries operate on the general trade compilation system, whereby both statistical territories and economic territories are consistent. While some operate on a special system whereby the statistical territory is only part of the economic territory, incurring gaps in certain goods exports or imports flows that do not meet the IMTS scope. Thus, providing incomplete records of bilateral trade. Other factors such as the misclassification of commodity codes, fraud and reporting time lags can also cause trade asymmetries.

More information about these factors can be found in the International Merchandise Trade Statistics manual (IMTS) and the UN Comtrade compilation methodology.

HMRC work closely with trading partner countries to further understand what is driving these asymmetries, and work to reduce them where possible.

As ONS produce trade in goods data on a change in economic ownership basis this can lead to other causes of trade in goods asymmetries. For example, in line with international standards (BPM6) the ONS records merchanting within trade in goods, whereas in previous international standards (BPM5) this was recorded as a service. It is likely that this and the measurement of other concepts where goods do not physically enter the UK, or do so without changing economic ownership, as defined in recent work on globalisation by ONS, will be a persistent cause of trade in goods asymmetries. However, there is currently little evidence to show the impact of these changes on trade in goods asymmetries in the UK.

Trade in services asymmetries

Work has been done previously by the ONS to analyse trade in services asymmetries between the UK and its bilateral EU and non-EU trade partner countries where complete data is available for a given flow. To calculate trade in services asymmetries, ONS use the annual UK non-seasonally adjusted estimates of service type by partner country published by ONS, which is consistent with BOP Pink Book. The main partner data source for EU countries is the EUROSTAT data with other non-EU flows obtained from the Trade in Commercial Services statistics published by the WTO. Trade in Commercial Services statistics are the leading annual trade in services statistics produced jointly by WTO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) covering 160 economies and 8 main services sectors. To supplement flows not available from Eurostat and WTO, other trade in services data is sourced from UN Comtrade, countries’ national statistical institutes (NSIs), and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Statistics of International trade in services (SITS), where available. The United States Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) International trade in services statistics is the main source of data for United States partner trade.

The trade in services asymmetries are analysed on a Balance of Payments basis and based on the 12 main Extended Balance of Payments (EBOP) services groups (PDF, 3.4MB), or classes. Partner country estimates that are in US dollars or Euros are converted using an annual average exchange rate based on the most recent bank of England (BOE) exchange rates at the time of analysis.

Outline of previous ONS publications on trade in services asymmetries can be found at the end of this user guide. ONS plan to update the trade in services asymmetries analysis as a timeseries backdated from the most recent reference period, along with a quality methodology information. ONS also aim to update the asymmetries analysis within the recently revised framework of the BPM7 following implementation by ONS. Users will be kept updated on this progress.

Causes of trade in services asymmetries (ONS)

The ONS article “Trade in services asymmetries – the challenges of measuring imports and exports” focusses on the challenges of measuring trade in services and some of the known reasons for and causes of the related asymmetries.

There are several reasons for trade in services asymmetries.

Difficulty of measuring imports compared with exports

National statistics institutes generally agree that it is easier to collect responses to business surveys from exporters than importers. Surveys are generally the main source of information for services trade; however, there are often more smaller importing businesses that fall below survey thresholds (for instance, employment or turnover), which makes them harder to identify and measure compared to exporters. Because import statistics tend to be more challenging to collect globally the chances of asymmetries between country estimates is increased.

Differences in methodology, coverage, and estimation

For example, imputation for reconciling missing data and estimation methods or disclosure control rules, can lead to different estimates of the same service trade.

Trade data adjustments

The balancing applied to trade in services data during processing can result in trade asymmetries getting smaller or larger.

Differences in adoption of revised or updated standards timelines

Non-uniform adoption of international compilation guidance changes from one edition to the next by countries’ statistical institutes can also contribute to asymmetries. ONS will be monitoring this specifically during the transition from BPM6 to BPM7 in the context of subsequent measurements of trade asymmetries.

Complex structure of enterprises with globalisation

The structure of multi-national companies that sometimes lead to inconsistencies in the way activities of subsidiaries are captured can sometimes mean data captured by one country is not accounted for by another, leading to asymmetries.

Differences in questions and question guidance

Questions and question guidance used for collecting trade in services by countries’ statistical agencies can lead to variations in the data being collected and limit comparability.

Differences in the interpretation and implementation of the proposed EBOP services classifications

This can be due to practical reasons relative to country’s economic context or different reporting systems. This can result in:

• definitional differences (whereby countries allocate trade for different levels of services classes or omit them when estimating their trade flows relative to ONS)
• method differences (whereby countries reconceptualise the components classified in one or more service classes in another or new service class)

ONS will be monitoring this specifically in the context of measuring trade asymmetries.

The challenge of effectively capturing digitally delivered trade

It can be difficult to identify where the digital services are being provided from as the businesses delivering these services are often multinational enterprises with a presence across several countries. In addition to this many of these digitally delivered services are delivered directly to UK households. These services cannot be captured by business surveys targeting UK businesses.

Differences in territorial definitions

Statistical agencies can define territories differently whereby some regions will be included in the trade measure of a nation (owing to dependencies), while it is excluded by bilateral trade partner countries.

Exchange rates

Currency rates used to convert bilateral trade partners’ data to reporting economies can introduce discrepancies between the countries statistics, especially in years where exchange rate volatility is high.

The timings of revisions to data

Revisions, which are generally backdated across timeseries data, aimed at more robust statistics can differ across statistical agencies. This can introduce some level of dynamism to published data, limiting comparability and the calculation of asymmetries. For example the ONS revise published trade data regularly in line with the National Accounts Revisions Policy, however this is not consistent across all statistical agencies.

The ONS work closely with trading partner countries and organisations to understand the drivers of these asymmetries and work towards reducing them; there has been strong collaborations and analysis in this effect with the BEA and the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Ireland.

Main partner trade in services data sources

Eurostat International Trade in Services Statistic (ITSS)

International trade in services statistics (ITSS) published by Eurostat provide intra-EU and extra-EU estimates of services credit transactions (known as ‘exports’) and debit transactions (known as ‘imports’) as part of the Balance of Payments (BOP) current account. This is our main EU and European Free Trade Agreement States partner country data and is also a data source for WTO and UN Comtrade statistics. The ITSS are transmitted quarterly and annually by member states. Data are collected by national enterprise surveys, the International Transaction System (ITRS) and administrative records to include information on transactions on an economic change of ownership basis between residents and non-residents in a country for the reference account period or year. This is reported by enterprises, households, or directly by the banks. The data undergoes validation checks by Eurostat directly with nations, including an asymmetry analysis and streamlining the estimation methodology with the European central bank to help reduce them. It also undergoes statistical disclosure control and the underlying methodology is designed to ensure a high degree of comparability across the partner countries data.

ITSS are expressed in millions of Euros and published annually between December and January. It is broken down by country (the 27 European union member states, the UK, and the candidate countries) and service type using the Extended Balance of Payments (EBOP) services classification.

These data should be consulted by users looking for trade in services statistics produced on a consistent basis across the EU and European Free Trade Agreement States. The consistency of the estimates, transparency of the methodology and reporting schedule for these statistics makes it a useful data source for understanding trade in services asymmetries between the reporting partner countries. This is because it removes many of the methodological differences, whilst clearly defining any discrepancies in data availability and so offers insights into total services asymmetries across the EU and European Free Trade Agreement States.

More information on the ITSS methodology, quality assessment, coherence and comparability can be found in the EUROSTAT quality report.

World Trade Organisation (WTO)

Trade in Commercial Services and trade in services statistics are part of the OECD-WTO Balanced Trade in Services Database (BaTIS), and is the main Rest of World data source. The BaTIS is published annually and as a timeseries from 2005 where available. The data are sourced from:

• OECD International Trade in Services statistics
• Eurostat International Trade in Services statistics
• IMF
• United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)
• other national statistics agencies directly

By using official national sources (and where possible complementing these with estimates produced by WTO and UNCTAD) users can access a complete matrix of exports and imports. To ensure internal consistency of the dataset, bilateral services are rescaled to match each country’s reported trade with the world, and adjustment procedures are carried out.

The WTO trade in commercial services data is broken down by partner country (when available) and service sector. This is consistent with the Extended Balance of Payments Services Classification (EBOPS 2010). The data are expressed in millions of US dollars.

The WTO trade in services data and BaTIS offer users a consistent global picture of trade in services at a detailed EBOPS level. These data should be used by those looking for consistently constructed trade in services data, compiled from multiple sources within a single trusted resource.

Further information is available on the:

• WTO international trade statistics methodology through the portal
• OECD-WTO Balanced Trade in Services (BaTIS) methodology page

Usage and users of trade asymmetry statistics

Trade asymmetry statistics are developed to help users identify, understand, and explain (where possible) asymmetries between the UK and partner country statistics. The main aims are to:

• inform data quality improvements and provide evidence for discourse between the UK and partner countries
• boost ongoing transformation and developments to UK trade and investment statistics

Improving coherence with partner countries

There is an effort across global trade organisations and UK partner countries within the EU and worldwide to share best practice and to identify and understand the most relevant causes of trade asymmetries to actively reduce them. The ONS has been instrumental to the establishment of the Informal Experts Group on International Trade in Services Compilation and Asymmetries, which was mandated by OECD’s Working Party on International Trade in Goods and Services Statistics (WPTGS).

The ONS is also an active member of the Task Team on Global asymmetries. The task team was established by the IMF’s Balance of Payments Statistics Committee to explore and make recommendations on ways to reduce global asymmetries in external sector statistics. They have identified that trade in services have higher asymmetries than goods in relative terms. Aspects like the rise of digital trade and e-commerce further adding to this complexity.

The Travel Workshop, established by EUROSTAT (PDF, 569 KB) is comprised of several regular and non-regular members and a diverse range of institutions and organisations including the ONS. The group focusses on travel and tourism data. EUROSTAT also prepares an annual progress report on asymmetries for EU member states and presents to the Balance of Payments Working Group (BOPWG). It also organises the Asymmetry Resolution Mechanism for trade in services (ARM ITSS), identifying asymmetries by their absolute and relative impact and influence on trade volumes.

The ONS continue to undertake extensive work to analyse and publish information on the UK trade in services asymmetries and proactively engage in discussions and initiatives to accurately and consistently capture trade in services asymmetries internationally. For instance, the most recent ONS trade in services asymmetries analysis has allowed ONS to focus on “Telecommunications, computer and information services”, “Transport” and “Financial services” groups as major sources of imports asymmetries. Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United States are the largest contributors to these asymmetries. All three services groups bring their own challenges for data compilers.

Telecommunications, computer and information services

New technologies and continue to evolve and change at a fast pace. This makes it difficult for data compilers to keep up with how to identify and measure these services, and how to do so in a consistent way across countries. ONS is engaged internationally with OECD (as part of the working party on Digital Economy, Measurement  and Analysis (WPDEMA)) and UNCTAD (as part of the task group on measuring e-commerce value (TG-eCOM)) to define consistent measures of new and emerging technologies and business practices.

Transport

The collection of transport information may require many data sources, capturing data on different modes of transport from different operators in different ways. This can make comparison between countries difficult. Furthermore, capturing information on passenger transport for non-residents can be challenging because operators may not necessarily have the information on country of residence of their passengers.

Financial services

This service type covers financial intermediation and auxiliary services, including those usually provided by banks and other financial corporations. It does not cover insurance enterprises and pension fund services.

Collecting and measuring financial services is complex and often requires multiple data sources. Individuals can engage in international trade by way of financial services. Also, investors may not be resident within a country, so capturing imports and exports of financial services can be difficult, particularly for non-residents.

Differences between UK and partner countries by service type

There are several differences between the UK and partner countries to be aware of when comparing statistics. (Please note this is not an exhaustive list of differences).

Improvements to ONS trade in services statistics

Some of the improvements or reconciliation to ONS trade in services statistics include:

The ONS work on asymmetries contributed to a decision to include microbusinesses in the ITIS survey (see International trade in services, overview of methods changes: 2020). ONS is undertaking further analysis of the microbusinesses ITIS survey results and will look to incorporate them as part of our trade in services estimates in future. ONS will keep users updated.

The addition of questions on the Transport sector to the ITIS survey in 2023, whereby specific transport-related businesses are targeted ensures this sector gains broader coverage with a higher, more consistent response rate. ONS is undertaking further analysis of these results and will look to incorporate them as part of their trade in services estimates in future. ONS will keep users updated.

Further reading

• Trade in services asymmetries – the challenges of measuring imports and exports. Article | Released 23 December 2022. This article examines on the challenges of measuring trade in services and some of the known reasons for related asymmetries.
• A model-based approach to reconciling asymmetries in UK trade in services data. Technical report by Marilyn Thomas and Luke Weston in collaboration with ESCOE. I February 2021. This technical report explores the proposed method for reconciling UK asymmetries in service trade based on a methodology used by OECD-WTO.
• Asymmetries in trade data: updating analysis of UK bilateral trade data
  Article | Released 21 February 2020
  this article gives an update on UK trade data asymmetries with select partner countries for 2016 to 2018, including recent source and methods changes and work to better understand and reduce UK trade asymmetries.
• Asymmetries in trade data: extending analysis of UK bilateral trade data
  Article | Released 30 August 2018
  This article examines the methods and sources behind bilateral trade data asymmetries for selected priority countries, including the United States, Ireland, France and Germany.
• Asymmetries in trade data – diving deeper into UK bilateral trade data
  Article | Released 30 August 2018
  This article examines the methods and sources behind bilateral trade data asymmetries.
• A global balancing act – exploring the asymmetries in world trade data
  Blog post | Released 30 August 2018
  Adrian Chesson captures ONS’s latest work in collaboration with bilateral partners such as the US and the Republic of Ireland, to explain some of the differences between the UK’s trade data and those of its biggest trading partners.
• Asymmetries in Trade Data – A UK Perspective
  Article | Released 13 July 2017
  A summary of UK Trade Asymmetries in a global context with a description of known reasons for asymmetries, ongoing work and future plans to reduce the asymmetries.
• Measuring trade – why does the world seem to import more than it exports?
  Blog post | Released 18 July 2017
  With complex international trade negotiations in prospect for the UK, Jonathan Athow explains how the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is addressing the asymmetries in global trade statistics.